Please do not remove this functionality until there is a stable and full replacement. One part of my wiki is a bibliography of books from the field and Special:Booksources and ISBN is used on every book page and that is going to grow into thousands. Not a problem with a change itself, a bot can change the page link if necessary, but the functionality itself would be sorely missing.
Topic on Talk:Requests for comment/Future of magic links
I agree. Removing it without having and teaching to users a full replacement is a suicide. We would feel totally helpless.
I understand that there is already a stable and full alternative. Just type [[Special:Booksources/0-7475-3269-9|ISBN 0-7475-3269-9]] wherever you would have previously typed ISBN 0-7475-3269-9.
Or create Template:ISBN with content
[[Special:BookSources/{{{1}}}|ISBN {{{1}}}]]
and then instead of typing ISBN 1-234-567-89-X, type {{ISBN|1-234-567-89-X}}.
That is not what I meant by my comment I probably worded it wrong. I have a simple template like that [[Special:BookSources/{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]]. I mean NOT having ISBN functionality at all, regardless of way it is going to be invoked. I would rather welcome its enhancement (ISMN).
Special page will still be available.
The International Standard Music Number?
The point of this change is to stop having simple plain-text letters that cause unexpected, uncontrollable links in the text. These magic links are being removed, and no new magic links are expected in the future.
Nice statement of the fait accompli and the "who cares what editors actually want" mentality.
@Jytdog: ???
"These magic links are being removed". In other words, The Developers Have Decided, no point in discussing, etc etc. Jytdog (talk) 18:51, 30 December 2016 (UTC)
This appears to be a case of what the English Wikipdia has, for many years, classified as a "CONEXCEPT" issue.
As for "no point in discussing", it's been publicly discussed for many months – far longer than the typical RFC at the English Wikipedia. It might be fairer to say "despite announcements in multiple forums, most Wikipedia editors didn't notice the existence of the discussion until after the decision was taken".
Guys, come down and thanks. Problem was rather in my imprecise wording, Special:BookSources is still with us and that is all that matters.